Ex-teacher charged with sexual assault
SAN JOSE >> A former teacher and coach at a San Jose middle school is in jail on allegations he sexually abused two of his students in the early 2000s, with the recent charges coming two decades after he resigned from the school under the cloud of a police investigation that did not yield prosecution at the time.
Ronald Dean Gardner, 63, of San Jose, had been charged with two counts of oral copulation with a minor and two counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor involving two victims who between 2000 and 2003 were Gardner’s students either in his science class or on one of the athletic teams Gardner coached at Sierramont Middle School.
The charges occurred after one of the reported victims contacted the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office on Feb. 2 to allege Gardner sexually abused him. The sheriff’s office then referred the case to the San Jose Police Department, which assigned its Child Exploitation Detail to investigate the allegations.
During the investigation, which included interviewing the man reporting Gardner’s abuse, detectives learned that another man who was a middleschool student at the time was also involved in sexual acts with Gardner around same time as the first reporting victim.
A police report on the new charges against Gardner also included details about a 2003 police report in which a student alerted the school to being the subject of inappropriate touching and sexually explicit and aggressive language from Gardner.
The earlier police report states that the school principal at the time told investigators that Gardner had been reprimanded in the past for “making inappropriate comments,” and described a lot of close contact between Gardner and a group of male students before and after school and giving them rides to and from school. The principal also noted that a teacher reported seeing Gardner kiss a student on the cheek during a 2003 power outage, according to that report.
No charges resulted from an ensuing police investigation, and Gardner resigned from the school soon after, the 2003 report states.
Gardner is being held without bail in the Elmwood men’s jail. His next court date is scheduled for June 21.
Police are exploring the possibility that there may be other victims associated with Gardner’s alleged behavior. Anyone with information about the current case or other potential crimes can contact Detective Rocky Zanotto at 408-537-1379 or at 3657@sanjoseca.gov. Tips can be left with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408-947-7867 or at svcrimestoppers.org.